Some DH and C&R areas stocked early

[Mike]

Just a note to let you know that a number of DH and C&R stream sections served by Huntsdale hatchery were stocked in the past two weeks. This was ahead schedule as these waters were originally scheduled to be stocked in March. There were at least one southcentral Pa. stream and a number of streams in the SE involved in the stockings. Those that I remember were Muddy, W Br Octoraro, Md Br. White Clay, W. Valley, E Br Brandywine, French, Pickering, Ridley, and possibly Donegal, although I don't recall if Donegal was included for certain. You should be very, very, very pleasantly surprised by the size of the fish.

 

[Maurice]

He ain't lyin'...thats all I'm gonna say about that.

 

[Mike]

Maurice,
I never lie about fish, but I was wondering how long you were going to keep silent about these fish.

Mike

 

[Maurice]

I was wondering the same about you Mike...I felt it wasn't my place to announce the State stocking and BTW, when moving the stockings into February, the listings on the website showMarch 1 stockings through Dec and they aint on there. It looks like they were not stocked. Might want to have that corrected.

But you are right as I implied...they are nice fish!

 

[mikemus725]

Thanks for sharing. it's nice to know I can come to a site like this and get good info.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

well id donegal was stocked then i need to refine my tactics :-D i fished there the past few days and didnt see nor catch a fish. but as u said maybe they didnt stock it yet. i know this......ill be keeping my eye open for the people who poach it out every year.....im getting sick of that! :-x

 

[skeeter]

WOW, thanks for the heads up...
Monday is lookin like a beaut to hit a stream...
I wonder why they decided to have an early stock on these streams. Maybe cause there wasn't much of a fall season, with the low flow conditions...esp south central pa. streams weren't even stocked.
I took a look at the PF&B site and I guess it is safe to say if a stream is FF/C&R or DH, is stocked by huntsdale, and there is a much later date for the next stocking (like 3mths away) it has been stocked?

Pat

 

[chstrcntyfish]

Sounds like I'm going fishing. Opening day just came a little early.

 

[chstrcntyfish]

I'm not questioning the validity of your statement, either way I will go fishing, but just wondering how you know?

 

[tomgamber]

chstrcntyfish wrote:
I'm not questioning the validity of your statement, either way I will go fishing, but just wondering how you know?

If you mean Mike...I think he works for PFBC...

 

[chstrcntyfish]

If you mean Mike...I think he works for PFBC...

That would make sense.

 

[S-tail]

Thanks for the info. I went to Pickering yesterday and edjucated several LARGE fish. I may go back today and see if I can smarten-up a few more. Bobhouse and I have an informal big trout of the year contest. I am now in the lead with 21". He will not be in the contest unless he comes down here before the end of April. Thanks again for the info.

 

[2bonthewater]

French creek was stocked........nicest bunch of fish I've caught in recent memory......felt like I was steelheading with a 3 wt......

lots of fly guys there........some real shady looking..........

the warden showed up...........pretty nice guy........he sure is a big dude

 

[chstrcntyfish]

East branch brandywine was stocked 20+ inch fish. Warden said that the hatchery had too many holdover fish that were supposed to be stocked in a lake and they were causing health problems with the other fish. So to get rid of them they put them in these local streams. Good for us.


I felt like I was going to snap my 4 weight in fast water, I can't imagine a 3 weight.

 

[pete41]

On a Delaware forum that I belong to it was mentioned that the price of the fish they bought to stock with doubled in ONE year due to increase in price of feed.There may be more to the sudden stocking of large fish then meets the eye.Hopefully it won't lead to a drastic decrease in number of stockers but you can bet there will be a push for more C&R and other limits.Unless of course the marginal states are buying from Pa..-I don't know how that works.
They should make it a sport anyway.
All catch and release-oops
Floridians butt out.lol

 

[troutbert]

License sales have been going down, so money is tight. So they raise some bigger fish, in hopes of increasing license sales (or slowing the decline at least). But raising 20 inch fish costs a lot of money ($8 apiece?).

It's like a dog chasing it's tail.

Good point about more C&R though. If you're putting $8 fish in there, does it make sense to have most of them removed between 8 am and 11 am on Saturday morning?

 

[eballat]

I have a friend who works for the PFBC and over the winter he did some hatchery work. He told me the state was going to be stocking a lot more "trophy" size fish this year in an effort to boost interest in fishing and license sales. Last year the fish they stocked were larger than the previous years, however that caused a drop in the number of fish they stocked over 16". This year there will be plenty of fish just not quite as many as last year, but they will be larger. Sounds like it will be a good season. Just hope the preseason poachers leave some of the hefty ones in the streams for me. They beat the crap out of the streams here in Schuylkill County.

 

[Maurice]

Eballet is right...there were too many pounds of fish in the hatcheries (or at least Huntsdale) for the NPDES permit. So they had to get rid of some. To do this, they wanted to put the fish in the special reg waters (being they would be stocked in early march anyway) and not the open water because the season was still in for harvest until March 1.

I saw 600 fish and only one was over 20" All the rest were 13-16" and a few 6-8/100 were 9-12. At least thats how it shook out at our C&R area.